Definition

A "Brick" is a EA tool used in planning and communication. It is based on the NIH Enterprise Architecture Brick.

Emerging	Strategic	Tactical
Things we are watching because they look promising for our organization Useful to track innovation work	Recommended for use in 2 - 5 years Things we plan to invest in when they mature and/or are "ripe" for consumption or we as an organization mature and/or are ready to consume	Recommended for use for 0 - 2 years Worthy of investment for immediate needs
Baseline	Containment	Retirement
Recommended for use now Things that are in use and have full support	Things in which we do not currently want to increase our investment Things that may deliver great value	scheduled for end-of-life

Brick Usage

In the technical space, "things" refer to technologies, tools, and protocols.
A thing can exist in one or more brick categories. For example, "HTTP" may be both baseline and containment, while "HTTPS" is both baseline and "tactical".
"tactical" and "strategic" can provide roadmap qualifications to baseline things
Typical lifecycle of things in a brick: emerging -> baseline -> containment -> retirement
Scope of a brick can vary, but the brick becomes less useful when it is too big or too small.
Strive for an open environment with one brick per domain area rather one brick to communicate to customers and one brick for internal team communication